Background

The security challenges of Benue State are as enormous as its blessings and as multifaceted as its borders. Benue State borders six other states and the Republic of Cameroon:

• Nassarawa: To the north
• Taraba: To the east
• Kogi: To the west
• Enugu: To the south-west
• Ebonyi: To the south
• Cross-Rivers: To the south
• Cameroon: To the south-east

These numerous boundaries have always constituted a source of insecurity to Benue, either directly by the Tribes of the neighbouring states or indirectly by external aggressive forces, who are sometimes hosted by some communities of the neighbouring States.

The lingering violence in the Ambazonian area of the Cameroons has also had a great adverse effect on Benue communities on the border.

The Islamic Jihad of the 1900s championed by Uthman Dan Fodio was met with a crushing resistance that ended in a humiliating defeat for the Islamic crusaders in the hands of the Benue people, particularly the Tiv ethnic group.

Since then, the Islamic extremists have resolved to accomplish the failed mission of the Jihadists, that is, the territorial conquest of the Benue Valley. To achieve this, they have continued to finance and arm Fulani terrorists under the guise of cattle herders, who continue to attack innocent Benue communities, leaving in their wake scores of gruesomely murdered persons and incalculable destruction of property and displacement of people from their ancestral homes. This is no doubt, an offshoot of the greater agenda of the Boko Haram sect.

Besides this, other notable sources of insecurity are the proliferation of arms, emergence of local militia groups and thugs often manipulated by politicians for power and control of State resources.